Barcelona Online | Forum 2004

Official Forum Barcelona 2004 site
Forum 2004
Forum 2004, the "Universal Forum of Cultures", ran from May 9-September 26. Appropriately, the €2.5 million a day event ended with a €850,000 firework display: it was all a bunch of hot air, I always said so.

Virtually everyone in Barcelona, barring the politicians and tour operators, thought it was a clever marketing ploy, a building contractor's dream come true, but that was not true - no really. In fact it was intended to, um… "promote study, reflection and innovative research through a process of dialogue involving all of the agents and all of the cultures that make up the contemporary world".

For followers of the political shenanigans that are such a part of life here in Barcelona, how much Forum 2004 made or lost is still a hot topic. It made a profit of over €100,000 if you are to believe those responsible for making you believe such things. If you don't, and you assume that not returning over €200 million in the taxpayer's money constitutes making a huge financial loss, Forum 2004 made, er... a huge financial loss.

If you want back the €959 they say it cost us a head (fat chance of that!), there is a site calling for another head - that of mayor Joan Clos, currently about as popular as the Sherrif of Nottingham. The latest, converting 12,000 free on-street parking places to metered zones at €2.75 an hour, making Barcelona Spain's most expensive city in which to park a car, with the same being applied to a much wider area of the city in October... Except that it rained heavily in September, and a significant number of parking meters got, er, damp, and no longer work...

If you are coming to Barcelona, the huge white elephant is down there on the sea front (which, we might add, makes a lovely walk).

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Barcelona Online (ahem) exclusive report
May 2004

Well, it finally opened, dinit? The day after the dire official opening ceremony, the Vanguardia's front page (see image, right) claimed Barcelona (very modestly) "offers itself" as the "world capital for dialogue". The papers here love guff like that. When there were anti-war demos, Barcelona was (rather less modestly) the "capital of world peace", said the Vanguardia, though there were simultaneous demos across Europe. There is no word for "bullshit" in Spanish.

Elsewhere we failed to find much mention of the Forum in the world press. The Guardian does have an interesting article on it that kind of puts the whole charade into perspective. A search on washingtonpost.com gave 54 results for "Forum 2004", none of which had anything to do with Barcelona.

By all means come to Barcelona, it truly is a wonderful city. But don't be fooled by the hype.

So what was actually on at Forum 2004?
Guess you've been checking out the official website, huh, and couldn't find a programme? The "breathtaking 3D tour" didn't put you off?

This was probably the link you wanted for what's on, this one will give you a day-by-day calendar of events, and this one tells you what its themes were supposed to be. Be patient, it's not fast to load!

Can't you find anything nice to say about the Forum?
No.

Forum Barcelona 2004
What is Forum 2004 really about?
What is the Forum about? La Vanguardia Digital has a superb section in which readers can participate, one of which invites you to say what you think Forum 2004 should be used for and what should be done during the event.

It is not, to say the least, very complimentary about the Forum but it does serve to show the other side of the coin, what the real inhabitants of Barcelona think about it – as opposed to the crass official line on it. Most of La Vanguardia Digital's readers seem to think either (a) that a lot of people are lining their pockets from it or (b) that the world needs to be told that Barcelona is the centre of the universe, with the majority clearly going for (a). A most enlightening read.

•Languages: Spanish and Catalan
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